The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-27

leading houses and glowing testimonials
from noted musicians printed ON concert
programmed Everybody knows that such
people IS List, Rubenstein, Won Buelow,
and presumably little josef Hoffman, and
other great pianists of the day, have been
overwhelmed with gifts of splendid instr1-
ments from manufacturers all over the
world A testimonial in acknowledgement
of the honor is a natural and courteous
thing, and many of those printed on pro
grammes were obtained in this way But
this trick is much deeper than that.
talked with the manager of one of the most
noted piano houses in the country the other
day, and. for the benefit of a suffering pub
lie will transcribe what he said:
Few pianists," he said, get their en-
gagements to play directly from the mana
gers OF entertainments. 1t is a part Of our
business &c secure artists a hearing, and con-
sequently the pianlsts make their applica-
tion TO U.S. We keep track of all the SYM
phony and classical concerts i'll the country,
and early III the season and at other times
offer to the managers the services of we'll
known pianists as soloists. The under
standing Is that the artist shall use our pi-
ano. We will not act as agents for any pl-
anist who will not agree to Use our mstru-
ment and none other. The artists, as a rule,
are very faithful to the contract, and |
know of one mentioning the name of IA
nous and popular player who will not play
even in a private house to private and
friendly audiences unless our instrument is
furnished for her. That may be carrying
the scheme too far, but it is well for us and
we do not object. In this way we KeeD our
instruments constantly before the public in
favorable light. 1t is good advertise
ment for us that an expert player prefers
our piano and will use no other. The fact
is, that few players have such decided per-
sonal choice between the four or five leading
instruments 1t is all a matter of bust
ness
"And about prices. No man who knows
anything ever expects to pay the asking
price for a piano. There are one or two
houses in this city where the price is kept
steady at the asking figure, but that is only
to prevent too great trade at the head
quarters. Our bulk of bu >iness, of course,
is with the middlemen. and IL is our policy to
favor them. The result is that YOU can do
great deal better than to buy your instru-
ment of the main house. A great many
people do that because they then
feel sure that they are getting an article
that is all that it is represented to be. But
as a matter of fact the difference in price is
so great between the figure named here and
that by the middlemen, that it will pay any
body 10 go out of town to make the pur-
chase For instance, you could go down to
klcumond, Virginia, or to any city in the
interior of New York or Penn 'ylvanil, buy
on of our instruments there, and save
enough money to pay for the trip, inclul-
in all expe SEES a the teightage on the
piano back to the city. You could even go
as lar as AtianCa and save enough TO cover
the expenses of the Trip and day or two
in the city, There is another reason why
we keep the price steep and stiff in the
main house Not only will there be enough
trade to justify it, but the expenses of the
main house are enormous, and greater
returns are necessary to meet them.
f. X. BURTON.